How to fade in and out?

[keithos27]

Hi there! I'm an *extremely* new Logic Express user but have been using GarageBamnd (in a limited capacity) for the past two years.

 

I have a radio show on the internet where I play my DJ mixes. I have a recorded WAV file of my mix but need to add a few other WAV/MP3 files to play throughout the mix such as:

 

- Intro jingle

- Two voiceovers throughout the mix that name the radio station

- Intro of me talking

- Outro of me talking

 

I'm familiar with how to lay these audio files out in Arrange view, but my concern is that when I lay a voiceover on top of my mix it sounds very "harsh." What I mean by this is that the music will be playing, then it will lower itself and you'll hear me talk, then it will take a second, then cut out, and the music will return to it's previous level. It doesn't sound very professional at all.

 

How can I fix this problem? I would assume I would need to slightly fade out the music, fade in the vocal, fade out the vocal, and fade the music back to its original volume?

 

Can anyone help me with this? Thank you so much!

 

-Keith

[David Nahmani]

Hello Keith, how did you get your music to lower itself, take a second, cut out and return to its previous level? Is that something you did in Logic? Using automation?

 

One thing you could look into is the Ducker plug-in, which does this automatically.

 

http://documentation.apple.com/en/logicstudio/effects/#chapter=4%26section=5%26hash=apple_ref:doc:uid:TempBookID-ReplacedWhenAssociatingWithMessierRevision-DYN-1007986

[keithos27]

Hi David! Thank you for the quick response!

 

I misspoke... I meant to write that GarageBand would do that automatically.

 

I tried to do the same in Logic Express and viola it doesn't do the "dip thing." I did notice one other thing, though... When I lay one voiceover on top of the music the meters peak (5.2). I tried to lower the fader on Audio 3 (the voiceover) but it moves the faders for every audio track... how do I separate them?

 

Also, do you have any good posts/info on automation?

 

Thank you David.

 

-Keith

[keithos27]

Also, how do I enable this Ducker plug-in? I am completely new to Logic and don't follow the steps outlined in that link... For example, how do you do Step 1: "Insert the plug-in into an aux channel strip."?

[David Nahmani]

Also, how do I enable this Ducker plug-in? I am completely new to Logic and don't follow the steps outlined in that link... For example, how do you do Step 1: "Insert the plug-in into an aux channel strip."?

 

If you're completely new to Logic, I recommend spending a bit of time with the Getting Started manual. Another excellent idea (if I may say so myself) would be to purchase my book (link in my signature below), which is tailored to beginners. That's the equivalent of someone taking you by the hand and telling you "let's produce a track" and then showing you exactly how to do it, step by step. That will be much less frustrating than you trying to figure it out by yourself and being stopped at each step of the process and having to come here ask a question or even having to search the manual for your answer...

 

... which is: click one of the inserts and choose Dynamics > Ducker.